# $40 Wineador project



## Vwluv10338 (Aug 24, 2010)

So I was on Craigslist and found this:

Haier HVTS18DABB 18-bottle Dual-Zone Wine Cellar/Cooler

I'm trying to consolidate and downsize a bit, so I'm selling this small wine cooler. It's perfect for an apartment setting or someone that only keeps a few bottles of wine/beer around. It's in fair condition. The LCD panel doesn't light up, so the temperature is locked at about 55F. It's thermoelectric, so it's virtually silent. It's available from various websites for around $150 -- such as: Haier HVTS18DABB 18 Bottle Wine Cellar Dual Zone Ultra Quiet Thermal Electric Touch Screen.

I'll let this one go for $40 or best offer. E-mail me.

So I figured if the temp was stuck at 55 but it worked then I would just put it on a timer to keep the temp up. For $40 I figured I would make something work. When I got to the guys house he had it plugged in and used an IR thermometer to show it was 55 inside. Sweet. $40 later I had it in the back of my truck. That was at 8:00pm this evening. It is now 9:19pm and here is what I have done.

Now I figured since the LCD was in the door and the wire had to go through the hindge that was a good place to start as the only moving part. I started by taking the cap off the hindge and finding some of the wires chaffed through the insulation but not broken. I thought I was done but all wires looked still connected.










I took the door off and started taking apart the box holding the LCD. I figured I would unplug it and check continuity. When I got the LCD apart I found this:

1: the connector unplugged.
2: a bent pin
3: slight broken plastic in the connector on the board.



















Put it all back together and: :woohoo:










:jaw:

The only issue I have now is this is a dual zone. You can only set the upper level to 55 at the highest. I need to do more research but it seemed like people would just remove the divider and disable the upper cooler. I will have to look into it more.


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## Quietville (Sep 12, 2011)

Awesome!!!

I love the lights!


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## purepoker (Sep 15, 2011)

Good deal!


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## High_Flyin_Ray (Jul 12, 2011)

nice find. Two weeks ago i found a el diablo or similar humidor (300 ct) for 25 bucks on craigslist. Picked it up, cleaned it up and bought a small humidifier (humi care for 75) and its great. next step is a coolerdor or electronic humidor.


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## CiGaR_SlAyEr (May 20, 2011)

Sweet score....couldnt you put a Ranco ETC in there to control that temperature then you wouldnt have to rip out the divider.


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## bombman0513 (Sep 25, 2011)

I HEART craigslist!!!!! I got a VINOTEMP 28 still practically new in the box for $150>>>> WOOOHOOO... getting in touch with Forrest at Wineador.com to get the full hookup cause of the money I saved on the cooler.Plus I will have money left over to help start fillin it up...My wife says that I am too nice,, cause I asked the guy if he was sure he wanted to sell it that cheap..and he was like take it.. he just wanted to get rid of it.. It works AWESOME.... ***THERE IS ANOTHER ONE IN THE NASHVILLE AREA FOR AROUND $200, SLIGHTLY USED***


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## raylol16 (Aug 4, 2011)

Man what a steal. $40 and some elbow grease and you're good to go!


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## Wallbright (Jan 2, 2011)

Very nice! 

I went looking on the local craigslist but all that was listed that was bigger than a counter top model was a Haier 36 bottle for $160. Way bigger than I need right mow and I don't have $160 to spend.


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## Vwluv10338 (Aug 24, 2010)

*A little update.*

So I removed the divider due to the different temp. I decided to disable the upper (colder set) cooling. I took the back of the unit apart. You can see the two separate thermo units. As it turns out the fan for the upper unit was not working so it was crazy hot. I just disabled the upper unit completely and will just let the whole unit run on the lower. Unfortunately, it is the smaller of the two because it is not designed to go as cold. Either way it is holding temp without turning in much.










Now I need shelves.

Now as you can probably tell I like to do everything myself. The Lowes near me has spanish cedar in stock. I purchased some there to use on my house which has full cedar siding and cedar trim. I found a few pieces of scrap but nothing I can use. I was going to go buy some boards when I decided to think a bit. Now my wife and I got home Wednesday night from the hospital with our first child. My wife is awesome enough to let me run out last night and pick up the cooler but I dont want to push it. This is no time to be outside running a table saw for a humidor that I didnt need anyway. So I weighed a time vs. money debate and decided to give Forrest a shout at Wineadors. I even splurged and decided to go with birdseye maple to match my desktop humidor which will now house my flavored smokes.


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## Johnpaul (Aug 15, 2011)

Very nice. I am a big fan of buy it cheap and fix it up. Congrats.

Just one note though. Your Lowes most likely did not have Spanish Cedar. They most likely only had red cedar and it is not the same. Red cedar will ruin your cigars. Spanish cedar is actually part of the mahogany family and not even close to red cedar.


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## Vwluv10338 (Aug 24, 2010)

Johnpaul said:


> Very nice. I am a big fan of buy it cheap and fix it up. Congrats.
> 
> Just one note though. Your Lowes most likely did not have Spanish Cedar. They most likely only had red cedar and it is not the same. Red cedar will ruin your cigars. Spanish cedar is actually part of the mahogany family and not even close to red cedar.


You might be right but I still believe it is spanish cedar for a few reasons. When I went to buy cedar for my house it didnt look anything like what I was used to and what was on my house. It wasnt rough-cut and the aroma and color wasnt the same. The boards they had looked more like a premium almost knot-free pine board. It doesnt look red at all or brown and rough like the cedar shingles my parents just had redone on their roof. Its a shame the singles are not spanish because we had pallets of them here.

EDIT: 
Ok, maybe I was wrong because it looks like this "Western Red cedar"
http://www.trailerdecking.com/western-red-cedar.html


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## Johnpaul (Aug 15, 2011)

:doh:I just wanted to point it out because it is confusing and real spanish cedar is not normally stocked in this country. I would't want anyone to ruin their sticks.:doh:


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## Vwluv10338 (Aug 24, 2010)

Johnpaul said:


> :doh:I just wanted to point it out because it is confusing and real spanish cedar is not normally stocked in this country. I would't want anyone to ruin their sticks.:doh:


 I appreciate that you have my back. I guess its a good idea then that I ordered drawers from Forrest. :thumb:


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## Vwluv10338 (Aug 24, 2010)

Update:

Well I finally got my drawers from Forrest all done. Birdseye maple to match my desktop. Maybe I need another shelf? It seems small but I have a fair amout of sticks living in there with one whole drawer empty excapt for a bomb from Forrest. I figure the pics of the drawers can give someone an idea of how many sticks they can fit in a 18 bottle cooler. To finish it up I just need shorter handle screws but I wanted to get it all together today.


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## aaron72 (Jul 14, 2011)

Nice looking setup. Looks like you have room for some taller drawers if you want to increase the capacity of the unit.


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## Vwluv10338 (Aug 24, 2010)

aaron72 said:


> Nice looking setup. Looks like you have room for some taller drawers if you want to increase the capacity of the unit.


You are correct but the pic makes it look worse than it is. When I saw the pic after I uploaded it I had to look at it again because the gaps looked so big. I have about one inch more I could have gone on the bottom two drawers but that would have been too tall for the top one. I was apprehensive ordering a custom product and didnt want them to be too tight.


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## aaron72 (Jul 14, 2011)

Gotcha, guess just an optical illusion.


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## Marlboro Cigars-cl (Feb 19, 2007)

Came together nicely. :tu


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## ginomontreal (Sep 1, 2011)

it looks great, and you got a great deal , for the fridge.


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## LLave (Oct 21, 2011)

Wow. I am jealous beyond words. Great looking wineador and nice collection! I dream of trying some of those sticks one day.


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## Ncpsycho (Nov 27, 2011)

I cant wait im on craigslist now lol


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